1. Field of the invention
This invention relates to a light-sensitive material comprising a light-sensitive layer containing silver halide, a reducing agent and a polymerizable compound provided on a support.
2. Description of prior arts
Light-sensitive materials comprising a light-sensitive layer containing silver halide, a reducing agent and a polymerizable compound provided on a support can be used in an image forming method in which a latent image of silver halide is formed, and then the polymerizable compound is polymerized to form the corresponding image.
Examples of said image forming methods are described in Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 45(1970)-11149 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,275), 47(1972)-20741 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,667) and 49(1974) -10697, and Japanese Patent Provisional Publication Nos. 57(1982)-138632, 57(1982)-142638, 57(1982)-176033, 57(1982)-211146 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,997), 58(1983)-107529 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,637), 58(1983)-121031 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,450) and 58(1983)-169143. In these image forming methods, when the exposed silver halide is developed using a developing solution, the polymerizable compound is induced to polymerize in the presence of a reducing agent (which is oxidized) to form a polymer image. Thus, these methods need a wet development process employing a developing solution. Therefore the process takes a relatively long time.
In an improved image forming method employing a dry process described in copending patent applications, a recording material (i.e., light-sensitive material) comprising a light-sensitive layer containing a light-sensitive silver salt (i.e., silver halide), a reducing agent, a cross-linkable compound (i.e., polymerizable compound) and a binder provided on a support is imagewise exposed to form a latent image, and then the material is heated to polymerize within the area where the latent image of the silver halide has been formed.
The above-mentioned image forming method is based on the principle in which the polymerizable compound is polymerized in the portion where a latent image of the silver halide has been formed.
Further, a copending patent application describes another image forming method in which the polymerizable compound in a portion where a latent image of the silver halide has not been formed is polymerized. In this method, when the material is heated, the reducing agent functions as polymerization inhibitor in the portion where a latent image of the silver halide has been formed, and the polymerizable compound in the other portion is polymerized.